I have been playing the banjo for about a year steadily. At the least an hour everyday and sometimes two. I feel like I have been making some great progress. Learning songs and banjo runs pretty steadily at this point.

Recently I feel like I'm regressing. Slower playing, fumbling easy songs, and not able to learn parts of new songs that look to be very easy. I feel like some days I hardly know how to put my picks on. LOL.

I know you can't assess my situation with minimal details but do you all feel at times like your playing falters or slumps? You go through a phase when you seem to play terribly? If so what is your solution? My thinking at this point is I need to either power through and it will work itself out or I need to put it down and take a break for a week or two.

I've been playing since October and like you, I play every single day. Most days I have fun with it and it's enjoyable but sometimes I get frustrated with a particular lick so I try to walk away from that for a bit and work on something else. When I come back to that, I usually play it better.

However, I have also found some days I just can't play like I was yesterday and I don't really know why. Sometimes I think it is just that something has slightly changed with my technique that I'm not aware of so I make sure I'm sitting properly and positioning my hands appropriately. Still some days I'm better than others but then I'll just switch to a different song or even practice a particular lick to give myself a break with whatever I'm working on.

It is like a anything else. You can play a great round of golf one day, and not so great the next. We all have things going on, could be tired, distracted, etc. Makes life interesting. It's ok to take some breaks but ultimately these ups and downs are all part of the process.

I think any person at any task will tell you they feel like they've found themselves in a slump. In baseball, they say just keep swinging. Other times, they say go back to some basics. Maybe go back to some songs that you enjoy that you consider to be an easy level and build some confidence back up.

Tertom wrote:... You can play a great round of golf one day, and not so great the next. ...